archaia

Over a decade ago, The Jim Henson Company announced plans to produce a sequel to the cult hit film The Dark Crystal, but those plans never materialized. Now, that might-have-been movie is being adapted into comics by Si Spurrier, Kelly Matthews and Nicole Matthews as a twelve-part miniseries adapted from the original screenplay titled The Power of The Dark Crystal.

The comics world is full of questions — like “Who would win in a fight?”; “Which one of the Powerpuff Girls is best?”; and “Who is the handsomest hero and why is it Gambit?” Here at ComicsAlliance, we spend a lot of time thinking about everything from the big questions that matter a whole lot to the small ones that are still kinda fascinating. With The Question, we’re going to give our writers the opportunity to give their answers, because if we’re always thinking about this stuff anyway, we might as well write it down.

For our latest question, we wanted to keep things simple. We’re now more than halfway through the year, and 2016 has brought so many exciting new comics. With all that in mind: What's your favorite comic of the year so far?

Jim Henson's Labyrinth is one of those rare movies that was somehow even weirder than I remembered when I finallly got around to re-watching it as an adult. The film, which stars Jennifer Connelly as Sarah, a girl who desperately wants to get rid of her baby brother, and David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King who happily obliges by stealing said baby and hiding him in the center of a massive maze, is turning 30 this year, and to say that it's beloved by fans for its fantastic surrealism is putting it mildly.

If, however, you're planning to pick up the celebratory Jim Henson's Labyrinth 30th Anniversary Special, there's one more piece of information you ought to know. There's a new coloring book variant cover by the amazing Joëlle Jones, available from Fried Pie Comics. So if you've ever wanted to color one of Jim Henson's creature designs, as drawn by one of the best artists around, now's your chance.

Adult coloring books are all the rage, and appropriately comics publishers have taken notice and are capitalizing on the trend. Recently DC Comics had a month long coloring book-themed variant cover initiative, and now Archaia is going one step further, publishing the Mouse Guard Coloring Book --- and we’ve got an exclusive preview of some of the illustrations by series creator David Petersen.

Last year at Emerald City Comic Con, toy brick artisan Alice Finch and her incredibly detail-oriented team put together an awe-inspiring display of David Petersen’s Mouse Guard dioramas built entirely out of toy bricks. At the time, we referred to it as one of the standouts of ECCC, and now Archaia is releasing a full-color hardcover packed with photos of the team’s incredible work.

The webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell launched way back in April of 2005. A sci-fi fantasy story about two young women at a weird boarding school, the series updates twice a week, which means it's become quite a tale over the course of the past decade --- and it's tale you might just enjoy checking out.

Jim Henson's The Storyteller is in contention for the title of greatest TV show ever made --- it's basically between that, The Wire, Deadwood, and The Great British Bake-Off. Originally running for just one season of nine episodes in the late 1980s, the show combined European folklore, Jim Henson's muppetry, and respected British character actors like John Hurt, Jonathan Pryce, Sean Bean, Brenda Blethyn, and Jennifer Saunders, to spin standalone traditional tales that, watched once, would stay with you forever.

Archaia first revived the brand in 2011 as part of its Jim Henson line, with some of the best up-and-coming creators spinning their own takes on classic folktales in comics form. More amazing creators stepped up to conjure occult yarns for 2014's The Storyteller: Witches, and now ComicsAlliance can exclusively reveal the next installment in Archaia's Storyteller series: The Storyteller: Dragons.

By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes, and it's a very welcome kind of wickedness. The first issue of Boom Studios' witchy new series Toil And Trouble by writer Mairghread Scott and artists Kelly and Nichole Matthews arrives in stores next week, telling the tale of Shakespeare's Macbeth from the point of view of some of the most famous characters in fiction to never get names; the witches. Boom has provided us with an exclusive preview, so if your thumbs have been pricking strangely, now you know why.

Have you ever wondered how an artist settles on the right image to place on the cover of a comic? Which elements to include, what's important, and how to show it?

Americatown is a new Archaia series from The Americans screenwriter Bradford Winters, Borgias screenwriter Larry Cohen, and newcomer artist Daniel Irizarri, which tells the story of Americans fleeing a collapsed economy to build new lives in a Buenos Aires slum. It's a story about family, politics, and poverty, and the challenge of devising a single image to capture the mood and intent of that tale fell on cover artist Mike Choi. In this feature, Choi reveals his process in putting that cover together.

What comes to mind when you think of Shakespeare's Macbeth? There's a good chance the three witches are high on your list, with alll their double, double, toil and trouble. Beyond their brewing, however, they're a relatively anonymous bunch — until now.

Mairghread Scott, with Kelly and Nichole Matthews on art, plans to bring the mysterious three to brilliant new life in The Third Witch, on sale September 2nd from Boom's Archaia imprint. Riata, Cait, and Smertae have been the unseen force behind Scotland's kings for countless years. When a disagreement erupts between the sisters, however, their fell powers threaten to change the course of history. ComicsAlliance sat down with Scott to talk Shakespeare, magic, and music to write witches to.

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